COMMENTARY: Can A Cheetah Change Her Spots?

There’s been a lot written about the negatives of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump potentially impacting the outcome of the Presidential elections. I would like to suggest the possibility that’s some negatives can be changed while others are so ingrained in the nature of the person they can never be changed. Some negatives are really bad and will taint that person forever while others can be reduced or eliminated. We will look at both and see if it is possible that they could change.

Now some of you reading this column we’ll be in favor of Hillary or opposed to Hillary Clinton. While on the other hand some are Donald Trump supporters while others are opposed to him. I thought it would be a good exercise to look at some of the highest negatives on each side and see if either candidates can reduce their negatives or are they like the cheetah in the headline they can’t change their spots.

Finding negatives is fertile ground for both candidates and while I could go on and on talking about both I thought I would stick to a maximum of five for each candidate. Hopefully some of your top five for each are on my list. Keep in mind that I believe some negatives maybe impossible to change while others may be easier to make it disappear.

Between the two candidates the polling data suggests that between 62% and 65% of voters feel that each candidate has significant negatives. While it’s difficult to tell for sure but right now it appears that Mrs. Clinton has slightly fewer negatives that Mr. Trump. So let’s use a scale of 1 to 10 trying to determine what are the highest negatives for each candidate and then see if they can be reversed or modified.

Hillary Clinton

Her biggest negative across all ages, sexes, and minorities when asked to describe her the New York Posts reports that 57% of the time they said she was not honest. Quinnipiac University reported that 61% of voters think she is a lyre.

Score 10

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No Compassion, she couldn’t remember that after all her testimony on Bengasi that one of her own ambassadors and three other Americans die.

Score 8

Email server and phone may have put American national security at risk to protect what? She is hiding something from the American people.

Score 8

Clinton Foundation, lack of disclosure looks like influence peddling

Score 8

Fees for the Clinton family members for speeches, to much money

Score 8

Donald Trump

Not experienced enough, he has never held political office

Score 5

Makes promises he will never be able to keep, like the wall at the border

Score 5

Arrogant, he is full of himself and he brags about his success and what he is going to do for the country.

Score 5

May be offering false hope to Americans who desperately need hope

Score 5

He is not conservative enough he is really a Democrat.

Score 3

I’m sure you and I could quickly expand the list and could come up with many more reason for both. Lets just look at the 5 for each candidate and see what could be done if anything to reverse the negative and make themselves more appealing to more voters to be elected.

Hillary Clinton

The thing that is common to all the 5 with Hillary is lack of transparency. If we don’t know then we don’t trust. If she has the 30,000 e-mails that were on her server then release them. Tell the public we have $200 million we don’t need more so no more speeches for any of us. Work with Charity Watch to find a way for full disclosure of what has and will go on at the foundation. She has to admit that the video was not the cause of the death of the 4 Americans and her policy caused the destabilization in Libya. If she does these 4 things the biggest negative will also diminish. I think more people will feel more positive about her. The real question is how transparent will she become. If she doesn’t and Donald improves his negatives she could be in a very difficult position.

I’m not sure she will ever become transparent and if she is the candidate I seriously question her ability to withstand Trump’s attack.

Donald Trump

What is common in all of Trumps negatives are that he seems to be focused on himself. Some people believe that one of the things that Trump has in common with Obama is narcissism. They believe that he will say anything to be elected no matter who he hurts. As he says, “If I’m attacked I will hit back harder”. This is not the Republican style, they don’t counter attack they just accept the criticism from the left. Some of the Washington elite is upset with Trump because he is not following the 30-year playbook of how Republicans are supposed to act when Democrats attack.

Trump does not need to become more Presidential; he needs to show softer edges. Those who are avid supporters of Trump know how compassionate he is and how committed he becomes when he wants to do something.

Trump has it within him to make the changes to reduce his negatives if he chooses to make the changes. Hillary is in a very different position-she is facing the possibility of an indictment by the FBI, she is in a dead heat with Sanders for the California Primary and may be on the verge of loosing the opportunity to not only win the Democratic nomination but the long desired Presidency. I suspect that if things start to turn against her she may turn on the party and the American people. When something you have lived for slips away your anger explodes because of the disappointment.

If Donald looses the general election he will go back to his empire and he will have something else to add to his list of accomplishments, Former candidate for President of the United States. The real question is where does Hillary go if she loses?

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Dan Perkins

Dan Perkins is a novelist who has written a trilogy on a terrorist attack against the United States. The Brotherhood of the Red Nile series is available at Amazon.com. Mr. Perkins book web site is www.danperkins.guru.

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